Woo, Pokémon Sword and Shield! There's so much to say about it. Let me not do that and just talk about the leaked dex. I've been quite negative about it, but I want to look at every evolutionary line separately and see whether maybe my gut reaction to the dex was too negative based on the whole Dexit baggage the game has come packaged with. (Spoilers: It was, sort of.)
Also, no individual images for each Pokémon. It's a lot of busywork to scrape these together from all corners of the internet. Most of them should be in this image here, barring the odd Dynamax or two.
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| This also sums it up nicely. |
The Pokémon
Grookey/Rillaboom: Grookey was my least favourite of the starters in terms of first evolutions. It's a fine design, but the series is rather oversaturated with monkey and ape Pokémon, especially considering gen 5 already has elemental monkeys and Chimchar also exists already. So I'm quite happy to find out that Rillaboom is very distinct from all those! It's a fine design, again, and I do this sort of rocker drummer theme it's got going on. Shame it's just a boring monotype though, yuck.
Scorbunny/Cinderace: Oh, fall from grace. To go from the best first stage to the worst final stage. Scorbunny is just really precious and cute, the most out of all rabbit Pokémon I'd say, which makes its inevitable evolution into just a generic cereal mascot a disappointment. Just nothing about it appeals to me, the whole sports theming this generation is something I 100% do not care for and it flows through in this design. Sorry but Diggersby is still ten times cuter and the best bunny Pokémon. Pure Fire type as well, which is a disappointment.
Sobble/Inteleon: How did this line go from supremely sad to supremely smug? I do not know but I do love it. Sobble's a narrow second after Scorbunny, but Inteleon is by far my favourite final starter evolution. Inteleon looks like some sort of 90's attitude platformer mascot and it's a look I am 100% behind. Not quite Greninja levels, but it's up there. The spy theming it quite fitting once again, considering the whole James Bond 007 British superspy trope. But also, monotype again? Ugh, they also did this in gen 2 and it sucked hard back then too.
Yes I am just skipping the middle stages. They're middle stages. They never really look great. Still, Raboot > Drizzile > Thwackey.
Corviknight: Can I just talk about how cool Corviknight is and how it's actually the best regional birdmon? No, I have to address the prevolutions too. They're nowhere near as good as Corviknight. The placement of their eyes and their facial markings around the eyes are just confusing, it looks like their red eyes are just the pupils of their seemingly larger eyes which somehow seem to go outside of their eyes, but no those are just in fact facial markings. Did that make sense? Maybe not, but these design aspects don't make sense so shrug. Corviknight is still really good.
Skwovet/Greedent: Don't they usually reveal regional rodents before leak season? Well, I can see why they didn't reveal these, they're just kinda boring and bland. Disappointing following gen 6 and 7's successes at making the regional rodents interesting. They look like the sort of designs some show would use in a Pokémon parody segment or something.
Wooloo/Dubwool: Poor Wooloo, made into a mouthpiece by people in that Wooloo signpost meme. Wooloo is just a solid, pleasant design and the best sheepmon we have so far by a wide margin. The giant wool, those strange sheep eyes. The evolution is similarly solid as well, it's bigger, woolier, angrier but it's also still got that sort of cuteness, those weird sheep eyes and a pair of horns plus vaguely football-coloured wool. I really do appreciate that they kept those eyes for the evolution, good job on that.
Gossifleur/Eldegloss: Wait, that's it? Eldegloss doesn't evolve? Huh. It really looks like a middle stage to me. Gossifleur's design just looks messy to me, it's hard to tell what exactly every part of it is meant to be, don't care much for it. Edlegloss is alright, it's got a sort of condescending look to it which I do like. It's better than Jumpluff.
Nicket/Thievul: I just really don't have anything to say about these. They really remind me of Purrloin/Liepard I guess. I suppose the evolution's got like this gentleman thief aesthetic, which I feel like I should like more, but I just don't. Eh.
Yamper/Bolthunt: Wow these are shit. These are some UGLY Pokémon. Horrible. Just, ugh! Terrible colour schemes, weird eyes, lazy electric type theming, boring conceptually. Yamper was hate at first sight, and somehow Bolthund is even worse. It's just a generic dog, but also it's got a ugly neon colour scheme, and a weird ugly face, and I hate it and I hope it gets culled next generation. Awful! Bad! Yuck!! Manectric did this way better 5 generations ago.
Milcery/Alcremie: Guess they are continuing the trend of fairy types being associated with sweets and cream. This just feels very derivative off of Slurpuff. As a design it's fine, it's the most basic feminine cake decoration they could have gone with I guess. I was sort of hoping there'd be a male variant based on those wedding cake toppings, but I guess that in Galar they only have lesbian weddings or something. Good for them, I suppose. Oh, and Milcery is just very boring and visually unpleasing with its drab and beige colour scheme, maybe it looks better animated, but it makes me thing that a drop of milk was just not a good design basis in the first place.
Blipbug/Dottler/Orbeetle: Die! With a nuke! Awful, again! Terrible, just, what? What am I even looking at here? Blipbug has absolutely horrible, awful, grossly over-exaggerated proportions and it's just way too much. It looks like a mess, why is the head so elongated? Yuck! Dottler is also way too angular for my liking, looks very unnatural and unappealing. And yes, I realize it's going for like a nerd glasses and bowtie theming, but they fucked it up so it's still bad. Well, still, Orbeetle is fine. Still not as good as Ledian though.
Morpeko: By Pikaclone standards this is... Pretty low on the tier list, I'd say. I don't like the ay it's shaped, I don't like how instead of a tail it just has weird tail markings on the back of its pill-shaped body. The Hangry form change thing is certainly a gimmick, but not a compelling one. Its face also looks kinda weird, but I suppose it is meant to be a Dark type so maybe that's part of the reason why it looks that way. The pockets thing is neat I suppose, so it's nowhere near "Yuck!" levels, just eh.
Chewtle/Drednaw: Horrible! Nasty! Awful! Again, just these walking and talking natural disasters. Chewtle has the same issue of Blipbug of having extremely distractingly horrific proportions, like the way its boated, thick, gigantic head sprouts out of of its entirely too small shell with this weirdly thickening neck, uuugh. Disgusting! And Drednaw is also shit! Like, the body is fine but the head is like a plastic toy and doesn't fit at all, it's like they glued together two totally different designs and it really doesn't work. Just two absolutely ugly, uncharming, unlovable Pokémon.
Hatterene: Now this is more like it. The Witch aesthetic is a good one, the trans flag pastel blue/pink and white colours are visually appealing and fit well for a soft design like this. It's just a good design. It's also clearly this generation's waifumon, so that's gonna lead to some specific sorts of art. But that's fine, really. I don't mind that. I do mind that the line is exclusively female though, why is that? There's no reason for it, there's been very feminine leaning Pokémon before that weren't exclusively male or female, this just seems like a pointless thing to tack on. Let boys be witchy princesses too GAME FREAK, you cowards.
Barraskewda: Probably the best a regional generic fishmon has been. I just like the way how it and its prevolution look, I'd say only Basculin comes close to appealing to me like that as a generic fishmon. So that's another hit.
Cramorant: Looks weird and dopey, in a cute and appealing way. It's good. Much better than Pelliper. The gimmick where it can shoot Arrokuda is funny.
Sandaconda: Well, I do like Snakemons, so I do like this. It looks really grumpy and upset over something, I do like that. I like the way it's coiled, but that weird giant flotation ring around its head confuses me, what is that supposed to be? It's sand-themed so it's probably not even meant to be a flotation ring.
Polteageist: Cute!! Just a very cute design. Very region-appropriate as well, and another in the list of Ghost Pokémon themed around the possession of some object which are usually my favourite Ghost types.
Rolycoly/Coalossal: Wow! It's disappointing! I was expecting something great from Rolycoly, I think it's a good first stage and I really like its eyes especially, but it just evolves into a shitty Graveler/Rhydon hybrid. Which by the way totally drop those cool red furnace-like eyes. Carkoal also has just weird, ugly face. The mouth looks wrong, the eyes are totally deformed, and it just looks like one of those deformed Mario 64 faces. I hate Mario 64! Coalossal also just looks like a pile of poop or something. Stupid, bad, badbad ugly design, not good.
Copperajah: Wow that's ugly. Really do not like the proportions here again, and those lumps on its head look way too rocky and unnatural. It's also very cubic. Maybe this is meant to look like something. If it's meant to look like something ugly then they did well, because it's ugly.
Impidimp/Grimmsnarl: Ohyes, Impidimp was my favourite revealed Pokémon before all the leaks started, and it's still high up there on my favourites list of gen 8. Such a wonderful, awful imp. I like how Morgrem is basically just an even more wonderful, even more awful teenaged imp, very good middle stage. And then there's Grimmsnarl. I think Grimmsnarl is just too much. I can appreciate that it's such a demonic and menacing looking Pokémon (just think of all what the overly concerned 90s Christian anti-Pokén moms would say), but it also loses that charm that the two previous lines had. It's barely even pink anymore! Barbie disapproves! Overall it just looks more like a mega or dynamax design than a third stage to me. I'm ambivalent towards it. Or should I say "him", because for some reason this line is male-only. Because girls can't be asshole imps apparently. Again, just like with the Hatterene line, this feels like an unneeded and tacked on gender restriction. These are supposed to be Pokémon, they don't need to conform to our human understandings of gender presentation. I thought we already settled that with Primarina's 87,5% odds of being male.
Toxel/Toxitricity: Don't realy care for Toxel and don't have much to say about it. I do love Toxitricity though. Toxitricity quite reminds me of Toxicroak and Scrafty, who are also both great, I could easily see those three getting together and getting up to all sorts of trouble. Toxitricity also gets both a regular and an amped up form, the amped up form has a very pleasant colour scheme combining purple and yellow, I do very much love that also. The base form still works quite well too though, I like how lanky it looks with that long neck. Yes. The Poison/Electric typing is also a new one and one I've been hoping the games would implement sometime.
Snom/Frosmoth: Snom is just a middle of the road larval stage bug, though its Ice typing is rather interesting. Frosmoth is a pretty good design, I can see why people would like it, but it also doesn't really do a whole lot for me. It's a fine, competently designed Pokémon.
Sizzlipede/Centiskorch: Ooh, I do like these. I like these a lot. These designs just feel very smooth and right, Unova had the Venipede line, but I like these two more than those. The way their bodies are segmented, their flat and broad abdomens (whatever you call those), theirs expressions and faces, and of course their many tiny feet. Love everything about them.
Cobbopus/Grapploct: Well, it's more interesting than Octillery, but that's a low bar to cross. I get that their facial markings are like wrestling masks, their tentacles like boxing gloves and Grapploct has a tentacle belt, and it is neat to get more non-humanoid Fighting types in the vein of Hawlucha and Crabrawler, but something about it just doesn't come together to be more than the sum of its parts. It's passable.
Duraludon: This is a standalone Pokémon? Weird. It's also ugly. The way its face is connected to its body is really awkward, its official art has it making an angry expression but it just looks dopey (and not in a cute, charming way), it's got those weird arms and legs, it just doesn't even look like it should be able to move around at all or exist. Just, very weird body shape and I don't like it.
Stonjourner: Well, I guess a Stonehenge Pokémon was inevitable. This just does nothing for me though, and I say that as a frequent lover of objectmons. Maybe it looks better in motion, but as is it does absolutely nothing for me and just like Dualudon doesn't look like it should be able to exist.
Pincurchin: Eh, it's alright. Don't have anything to say about this one. I guess it reminds me of Pyukumuku or something.
Ideedee: Apparently these are supposed to be based around a maid or butler respectively. Why weren't these just Galarian Audino? They look very similar and they would need to change very little to just make them that instead of its own species. It's fine as-is, but way too similar to an apparently wholly distinct type of Pokémon. This really would be better if it was just Galarian Audino.
Applin/Flapple/Aplletun: I am quite split on this line. I absolutely ADORE Applin and Flapple, those are amazing designs! Appletun is a resounding meh though. So I'm going to pretend it doesn't exist, it's a version elusive anyway. Applin is a very simple design, just an apple with big ol' appleflap eyes. And that's cute! I like that, it's just really cute and precious. Strange that it's dragon type though, but it makes more sense when it does evolve into Flapple. And Flapple is such a cool visual idea, a worm infesting an apple that has split the apple open and is using it as wings, that's really cool! It also keeps those strange eyes from its first stage, and the pun of an apple worm being a wyrm is neat as well. This is a top tier design.
Eiscue: What the hell is this mess doing wedged between two amazing Dragon type lines. This is up there as one of the worst designed Pokémon in this dex, it's just a boring penguin with an ugly face. The design of the body is completely mundane and lacking in interesting features (no, those blue splotches don't count) and the whole "hiding its face in a block of ice" gimmick could've been handled much better I'm sure. There's a workable idea and theme here, but the execution is a big mess. This would work as an enemy in a weird RPG like Undertale, and it really does feel like it'd belong in Snowdin, but as a Pokémon this is severely lacking.
Dreepy/Dragapult: Alright. This is amazing. This is fantastic. There's nothing I don't like about this whole evolutionary line, and it's a strong contender for best-designed pseudo-legendary. Dreepy is just cute, with the way its head is shaped, the way it has those arms stretched out like a basic scary ghost pose, and the spooky little ghost tail. Man that's cute. Drakloak is a fine transition between that and the amazing Dragapult. Wow, I just think every aspect of that design just works. It shooting Dreepy, having a longer ghostly tail, the head being used to launch the Dreepy, just all around excellent.
Falinks: huh, I wondered why this wasn't Bug type at first, but it's actually a bunch of tiny little warriors forming a line. A link you could say. A link phalanx. Oh that's just precious. I love these little guys, they're really cute. They don't really strike me as a Pokémon, but whatever right, it's still a good design. Really want to see how they animated these.
Fossils: They're all shit. Absolute garbage. Another instance of them going for a theme and totally, 100% botching it. I hate them all and would have rather have gotten four regular fossilmons instead. I get that they were going for the theme of scientists messing up a bone reconstruction, but they took it way too far. These Pokémon just look miserable. Dracozolt actually just kinda disgusts me, Arctozolt is probably the most salvageable design of the bunch, Dracovish just looks miserable and I don't even understand Arctovish. Purposefully bad designs are still bad designs, they could have done this mismatched theme while still crafting Pokémon that are lovable on their own merits. These aren't.
Zacian/Zamazenta: Booooring! Worst cover legends barring Dialga/Palkia. Their base designs are just much too plain, not nearly distinct enough and just an all-around mess of colours trying desperately to get some intrigue out of a concept as boring as "two wolves" and failing miserably. Their armed forms are somewhat better, but they are still huge letdowns compared to the brilliance of gen 6 and 7's cover art Pokémon. What a giant step down. These two don't belong on cover art, but I suppose it is fitting the more bland and boring cover legendaries got the most bland and boring game cover art.
Eternatus: Uh, wha? I'll need to see this one in motion to even figure out what's going on with it.
Galarian Forms
But wait, there's more! Yes, that's right, Galarian forms! Appreciate them while they still exist, because they're definitely going to be culled until we get Sw/Sh remakes 20 years from now. I do not look forward to that future.
Meowth/Purrserker: Uh, another one? Guess they need their anime fuel. Galarian Meowth really makes me think of Yokai-Watch for some reason. Maybe it's the mouth and eyes. It seems rather superfluous though, since its evolution Purrserker looks more like an alternate form or side-evolution than an outright evolution. The design itself is fine, I like that it combines a berserker look with a miner's helmet, plus that scraggly beard. Still doesn't feel like an evolution though.
Ponyta/Rapidash: Yeah, they're fine. Typical magical colourful unicorns. Everyone threw a fit over Ponyta not being Fairy just for Rapidash to be pat Fairy anyway, strange how that went. I like these more than the basic Ponyta and Rapidash, but that's a low bar to cross.
Sirfetch'd: Oh boy, another smugmon. I do like the smug white knight in shining armor thing it's got going on. Plus its leek gets long and turns into a jousting lance! It's just like Alolan Exeggcutor! What a neat concept. I do like this, anyway.
Weezing: Alright, this is pretty funny. A good reversal on Weezing's original design and attributes, and Poison/Fairy is an interesting typing. I think its expression could've been more smug, but I suppose the smoke facial hair makes up for that. It also gets smokestack chimneys, which are of course long. It's just like Alolan Exeggcutor! What a neat concept. Again.
Mr. Mime/Mr. Rime: Jesus Christ why. Just, just why? I do appreciate that Galarian Mr Mime looks a bit more like your typical mime, but I think they could've gone a bit further with it. Mr. Rime is completely unnecessary though and definitely doesn't feel like an evolution. This actually truly does feel more like a character from a cartoon than a Pokémon. A very clear example of the shifting design philosophy of GAME FREAK away from Pocket Monsters and towards cartoon characters. This really truly and genuinely feels like a mediocre fakemon evolution, I think we've all seen our fair share of those, and Mr Rime wouldn't even be the best among them. Sigh, to think we almost got so close to having a true murderclown Pokémon. One day I will have Ballio in Pokémon.
Corsola/Cursola: Oh my god, that's brutal. Bleached coral Corsola, and it's actually Ghost type. Hunted to near extincting in Alola, polluted to death in Galar. Being Corsola is suffering. Very cool concept though, and executed wonderfully. Cursola is definitely one of the edgiest Pokémon out there and feels like something out of an edgy romhack, but in a good way. Great regional variant and evolution.
Stunfisk: Hm. Well, I get that it's a bear trap with a Pokéball lure kinda like Voltorb and Foongus. But also, I like the regular variant more. I still do like Galarian Stunfisk, and it's a conceptually interesting way to transfer it over to Galar, but not as much my cup of tea.
Zigzagoon/Obstagoon: I really like what they did with Zigzagoon and Linoone, these designs truly exceed their originals and are very aesthetically and thematically pleasing. They fit Galar well. Obstagoon I'm more ambivalent on, the design here is much more "guy in a fursuit" than other anthropomorphic designs, which is compounded by the fact that it just really doesn't follow up from Linoone's design to become this bipedal manguy. Well, anyway, I'm sure it's going to make for some interesting fanart. Ohyes. People've already been busy, and I couldn't be happier.
Darumaka/Darmanitan: Heehee, funny. Turning Fire types into Ice types and vice versa is interesting, and the way they did it here does quite amuse me. These two are some of my favourite regional forms out there. Also nice to see Unova getting some love, finally.
Yamask/Runerigus: Ohh, that's really cool. Yamask's not changed much, but Runerigus is perhaps even cooler than the already great Cofagrigus. The way its spectral body lines up with its rune art, the way it can extend its runes and retract them, it's just really cool and visually interesting.
I'd say they did a better job with Galarian forms than Alolan forms, at least. Not only doing Kanto mons is already a great change, but these Galarian forms also feel more experimental and out there, for better of worse. I think the new evolutions are a mixed bag though.
Gigantamax
But wait, there's more. That's right, Pokémon who gain new powerful forms in battle, and the ability to use special attacks, under the right conditions of course! Naturally, I speak of Mega Evolution and Z-Moves Gigantamaxing.
Charizard: The urge to just put in "Fuck you, Charizard." is quite strong here. The design itself is fine I think, I like this more than Mega Charizard X, but also I just absolutely hate what this form represents for these games and the series as a whole. Charizard already had two special forms, now they're getting rid of those just to add in a third new form? And it's the champion's ace? What happened to showcasing and getting attached to new Pokémon? This is just pointless. It's nakedly obvious pandering, and there's little more annoying than being pandered to with stuff you don't care about while crucial features are missing. Fuck you, Charizard.
Pikachu: It just gets fat. Boring. I know it's a gen 1 Pikachu meme, but this is a waste of time and space. Put in more Pokémon instead of this nonsense.
Eevee: This is somehow even worse than Pikachu, honestly. The way they're trying to make Eevee the next Pikachu is ridiculous, and they're undercutting the whole point of Eevee's eight split evolutions by shoving the base form at us like this. Its voice acting is also bad, it doesn't sound like what Eevee should sound like, localize that stuff! Oh, also, the design itself is just even more boring and bland, it just gets angry and fluffy. Why? What a waste.
Meowth: Hurr hurr, it gets longer. Stop it already, you did this thrice already, and better in each case. This is just clearly a forced meme Pokémon. Garbage. Memes used to be funny. Past tense.
Butterfree: Yeah, ok, it's alright. Bigger, other colours. Mega Beedrill was way better though. But you cut that one out.
Machamp: Why have they been shilling Machamp so hard ever since Alola? It appeared a ton in that game with NPCs fawning over it and whatnot, now it gets a new form. Strange that Alakazam didn't make it in though... Uh, anyway, the design is ok I guess. Plain and basic again. Its eyes light up, its arms are super hot lava now or something. What a shock. Megas were better than this.
Kingler: Nope, not even Gigantamaxing can make Kingler anything but a boring crab.
Lapras: Couldn't find any good still shot of this one. But if these other Kanto Gigantamaxes are any indication my hopes are low.
Gengar: Didn't you already have a mega? God I don't care about these. Well, actually, I suppose this design is fine, but it's also so derivative off of Mega Gengar's design of being stuck to the ground... Why reinvent the wheel like this?
Holy shit it's my boy Garbodor: Yeeeees. Garbodor finally getting some due recognition. And it's got a train rammed up its butt! God, goals am I right? It's neat that it's got some references in the garbage cluttering its body, like some of the toys from N's room, a model from one of those in-game boats, Pokédolls, a Magikarp skeleton. Man, there should have been less Kanto Gigantamaxes and more Unova Gigantamaxes.
Corviknight: Yeah, it's fine. Corvinight but Corviknightier. It's got red stuff, ooh. Woo.
Alcremie: Kind of a letdown really. Alcremie itself looks the same and the cake isn't very visually interesting either. I get that it combines all the Alcremie variants, but that isn't enough to make the cake interesting to look at, and the cake is most of the design.
Drednaw: It's better than regular Drednaw because they did theyr absolute best to hide Drednaw's bad face. It's still there though, so eh.
Hatterene: Hm, I think I like the regular Hatterene more really.
Coalossal: Oh hey, it fianlly got its eyes fixed. Neat. Doesn't make the rest of the design any less of a bland mix of Golem and Rhydon.
Grimmsnarl: Alright, I do think this one is a substantial improvement actually, it just gets even more menacing somehow, I do quite like this one unambivalently. See, I don't every Gigantamax! I just don't like the vast majority of them. Hm.
Copperajah: Wow it gets even uglier. I'm sure there's a theme here, but I hate this.
Duraludon: It's a skyscraper? Uh, sure. Still not a good design though.
Centiskorch: It's Centiskorch but longer and whatnot. Kinda makes it look almost like a dragon. That's cool. It's a good design.
Flapple: Ooh, I do like this one. Flapple but the apple's closed again. Makes me wonder whether this one is based on the apple of enlightenment with the worm substituting for the snake? That's an interesting idea for a Pokémon. Flapple just is a gift that keeps giving.
Overall thoughts
Honestly, I'm not sure. I had a pretty visceral reaction to some of these Pokémon, more than I had with other generations. There's still some definitely great designs in here and sufficient Pokémon to form several different teams, but I still think it's much less consistently good than generations 6 and 7, and it doesn't make up for it with having a lot of additions either like gen 5 did.
I still think this is a dud generation, but that doesn't mean there's a shortage of good designs in there. Inteleon, Dubwool, Hatterene, Polteageist, Toxitricity, Morgrem, Centiskorch, Flapple and Dragapult are all great new additions after all. But conversely, when the designs are bad, they are BAD. Bolthund, Blipbug, Chewtle, Carkoal, Eiscue, the fossils, Mr Rime and Gigantamax Meowth/Pikachu/Eevee are all just absolute trash tier designs and I hate all of them. I've never had that many Pokémon I just outright hated in a generation I think.
Designs also do feel more like cartoon characters than ever, as stated when talking about Mr Rime. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but in some cases they got attached to this idea of a theme that any actual charm or quality was tossed out of the window just to maximize the theming.
Well, anyway I'm glad to have got that out of my system. Thanks you sincerely if you read this all the way here! Do tell me whether you disagree with me or not! Maybe you think Bolthund is a good doggo instead of a piece of shit, or think that Impidimp is an ugly noodley-limbed mess in a bad instead of a good way, and that's fine!
